


thirty four frames

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, F/F, F/M, Humanstuck, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 20:55:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4114644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which a boy is encased</p>
            </blockquote>





	thirty four frames

Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you're currently confused off your ass.

You've been standing with your luggage in hand for about three minutes; tilting your head at various angles and squinting your eyes every so often. The thing you're staring at just so happens to be some guy who sits on a seat like he's waiting for someone; and you're not sure if he is or not. You suppose it couldn't hurt to ask, but you're moreso expecting Dave than this weird ass looking guy. His hair is blonde, oh-so similar to one certain asshole you know - but it just doesn't feel quite right. His glasses are in the shape of a basic scalene triangle, opposed to how you remember Dave's shades being. But, again, you suppose it couldn't hurt to ask. So, you inhale deeply and walk over to the guy. The thing is, once you're in sight you can nearly fucking feel that this guy's a Strider.  
"Hi. I'm looking for-"  
"You're looking for Dave."

There's a silence, the guy looking at you like he knew what you were there for. This must be Dave? You're not sure, but if it is, then he's changed so goddamn much. You part your lips to question him, but when he stands up your words fall from your brain and you're silent. Now you know you're pretty damn short, but this guy is a fucking GIANT. Like, you have to tilt your head up to see his face, because your eyes at the level pace meets with his shoulders. You clear your throat, trying to gather your own thoughts for a moment, then speak.  
"Yes, I'm looking for Dave," you're kind of proud - you haven't started saying shit or yelling at this oaf, but that's because he hasn't really done anything yet. You proceed to speak, after your small celebratory thoughts evade your mind. "You look like a Strider. Are you Dave? Or... Shit, I don't know. Help me out here."

You feel relieved whenever he speaks, and although he sounds kind of stoic there's a twang in his voice that he can't really cover up. "I'm not Dave, but I'm here in place for him. He was busy, so he sent me to pick you up and shit, so... I'm Dirk. Dave's brother."

Oh, well shit. That's Dirk. Dave's brother. You for one never knew Dave had a brother, or, were certain if he had one or not. He never really spoke a lot about any family, but you supposed he did after he referred to someone as 'bro'. You probably just didn't make much of it at the time.  
"Oh." You say, and it's kind of the death of the conversation at that point. Neither you or him utter a word for about a minute, so you part your lips once more. "Okay. Lead the way, I guess," you add on, feeling the tension of the conversation seeping into your fucking mind. God, Strider's always had a way of scaring the living shit out of you. It wasn't even funny.

"Right, follow me," and he set off, walking slowly though his legs being so long guaranteed that he could walk slow while you speed-walked at his side. Tall people made you frustrated because of this. But, you weren't about to cuss him out in public because he had mile-long legs, it didn't really bug you that much aside from the nagging in the back of your mind, anyway.

So, you followed him, a bit breathless when you reach his car from all the rushing to keep up with him shit. He opens the trunk, and you set your suitcase in it, then walk around and seat yourself in the passenger seat. You take note that he owns a beautiful Impala, and you're not sure if he's into the car stuff, so you're not sure if it really matters to him or not. You sigh, buckling your seatbelt in and consider a few ways to start a conversation. Though, before you can even say anything, he puts his keys into the ignition and turns the car on.  
He's pretty fast, you come to realise, and you can certainly appreciate that. A few moments pass by as he works on making his way onto the highway, and you realise there's complete and utter silence. Is there a reason for that? Does the radio not work, or... What's the deal here?

You decide to keep quiet about it. He'll see you as a tool if you complain not even five minutes into the car ride, and you're not in the mood for any of that. Despite any other circumstances, he seems perfectly okay with the maddening silence, and you partially believe it's because of the signature Strider facade and that's just fooling you, but you don't let that get the best of you.  
But, nonetheless you decide not to make it obvious that you're distracted by the older Strider, and lean your head against the window. You watch as road signs and occasional exits from the highway pass by, and it occurs to you that you're not even sure how far away from the Strider residence you are. You wonder if by this point you should say something to Dirk, but he's so intimidating that it makes your words drop from your mouth. This has NEVER happened to you back at home, and you really hope you get used to Dirk because you'll be living with him and Dave for the rest of the year.

"Dirk," you say, and you're so mad that it came out slightly choked back. It makes you sound like you're afraid of him, and that's the last thing you want any Strider thinking. He doesn't say anything, but he does give the slightest nods, as if allowing you to continue what you're saying. You're not sure why he's so quiet, but then again you're being oddly quiet as well - so, you shouldn't really be judging him on that at all.  
"How far away are we?" You ask, the question having been asked to you yourself so many times that you didn't even like to hear yourself saying it. You nearly always hated whenever children asked such foolish questions. But; you feel like an exception. Little to no information has been given to you so far.

Dirk is silent for a moment, as if he were thinking things over. Did he even know where he was? A moment's time passes, and he finally speaks. "We're about an hour away, so it's not gonna be too terribly long." He informs, and you sigh in relief. Thank God, only an hour of travelling left, and then a brief meeting with Dave, and then you're done. Hopefully. You're just tired, and a bit aggravated from Dirk's odd personality.

"Okay," you reply, leaning your head against the window once more. You let a sigh slip out and you close your eyes; maybe you can get some sleep before having to see Dave. But, it's so gut-wrenchingly quiet that for once, you can't sleep. At this point you ponder on whether or not to ask Dirk for music, and after what seems like mere seconds of contemplating, you decide that it would be best to hear something to fill the silence. "Dirk," you say again. He's quiet, but you know he's listening. "Can you turn some music on or something?"  
That was probably a huge mistake you realise, because when he does turn something on the first thing you hear is some rapidly high-pitched singing from a chick singing in another language. You want to cringe and ask to put something actually worth listening to on, but you're too fucking exhausted to even make a grumbling sound about it. You simply rest your head once more and try to sleep.

-

Luckily, you're just awaking once he's pulling in. It's an average sized house, two stories with a normal garage and everything. For whatever reason, you were expecting Dave to live in a mansion by the way he talked so highly. You unbuckle yourself and get out, Dirk also getting out of his car and popping the trunk for you. He walks with you to his front door after locking his car up and such, and he unlocks the front door with ease. He must be used to going out, you supposed.

He steps inside, and you furrow your brows. This was a homely home, with no weird trickeries and such. Could it really have been that Dave was all talk? You look to Dirk for some help, and he motions for you to follow him.  
You heave yourself up the stairs behind him, little energy from the small nap you had on the way here - either that or you're just a bit sluggish because of the nap. Either way, you're already up the stairs at this point. He leads you down a narrow hallway, in which you discover is actually... Filled with various piles of puppets. That's fucking creepy, for whatever reason they decide to muster up, nobody needs THAT MUCH puppets for anything at all.

He opens a door to reveal a nice, little puppet-free room that has a bed, a dresser, a closet, and a nightstand as well as a lamp and a clock. That's a pretty neat setup, because you're near-certain that's all you really need to survive in this place. What you hope the most is that you can keep it clean and stuff, because that was the slightest of issues back at your own home with Kankri.  
Shit. You forgot to call Kankri, so you decide that you should after Dirk finished showing you your room. You step inside, placing your luggage down and nodding. "Thanks," you say hastily, and he flashes a brief thumbs up.

"My room is right across the hall if you need anything, or something," he states, then waves you goodbye. You keep a friendly gaze for a few moments until he crosses into his room, in which you can see is full of posters of some weird anime characters. He's quite the person, Dirk. But you suppose all Strider's were considered strange. You close your door, grabbing your cell phone and quickly calling Kankri.

He answers, but he answers with an immediate sigh; so you already know that he's unhappy with you. You take a moment to fix your sentence in your head before saying it. "Okay, sorry for calling so goddamn late but I just got to their house," you start off, and he stops you there.

"Is everything alright so far? You seem a little tense," he says. You're not sure what he means by that, so you give him a moment to explain himself better. "Sound a little tense, I mean," is all he says; voice fluid and his words over-pronounced.  
"Shit, well," you pause, but he doesn't take the opportunity to yell at you for your foul language. "I just met Dave's brother, is all," you explain. You're not sure why you're tense, or why you even seen it. "I think I'm just tired is all."  
At this point, he speaks, "Ah, well, as am I. Would you like to pursue this conversation another time? Maybe tomorrow sometime around noon would be best," he says, and you remember that you have basically nothing to do except go with Dave into the city to explore and such. So, you suppose you could probably fit calling Kankri in somewhere among that time, it wouldn't be that much of a burden.  
"Sure, sure, I don't give a shit," you dismiss as a form of agreement. "Well, I'm gonna get ready for bet, and I'm near-certain you probably have your hair-curlers in already, so... Bye."

You hang up instead of waiting for him to give you shit about what you had said, and you quickly drop into bed. You peel off your pants and kick off your shoes, then use your feet to take your socks off since you're so damn tired. You don't even have time for pajamas, so you crawl under the covers in just your Linkin Park shirt and your grey boxers, and you're out like a light right away. You're kind of excited to see what tomorrow might hold, but... You kind of feel like it'll be a long day.

====

You're awake, but you keep your eyes closed.

To be honest, you've been awake since fucking four since Striders just wake up super goddamn early to drink milk directly from the jug then stand in the kitchen for another hour before realising that there's nothing else to do in there since it's so fucking early. You partially believe that Dirk was sleep walking when that happened, but you didn't want to get up and investigate, because what if he wasn't. What would you even say you were doing, going out of your room at four in the morning.

You finally decide that they've been up long enough to have at least established to each other that you're present in the household, or so you hope. You pull on some pajama pants and wander down the hall and down the stairs, into the kitchen after first walking into the living room, in which you should mention, was swarmed the fuck with those creepy ass puppets that seem to hunt you down with every turn you take in this house.  
But, that's off topic. When you get into the kitchen, you see Dave, you see Dirk, and you see some NEW LEVEL TERRIFYING ASS SHIT SITTING ON THE TABLE.  
It's not even funny. The puppets lying everywhere was one thing, but the puppet with the blue eyes and gold teeth and chains? That was fucking scary. The way he stared at you just made you feel like he wanted to murder you since the moment you walked into the fucking kitchen, but you stand, trying to play off the shear fear that's turning your blood cold where you stand.

"Sup," Dave says to you, and you have never been more happy to see Dave for once. Obviously, you don't let this show, because that will probably ruin your reputation as a hard ass. But, you're not sure whether or not this had carried through with Dave, seeing as it's been quite a while since you last seen him.  
"What the FUCK is THAT?!" You shout, pointing to the weird ass puppet that's sitting with them. Both Striders direct their gaze to the thing and back to you. God, even the Striders have become relatively creepy; the way their stoic expressions turn to look at you, and to the puppet, then back at you. They don't even give a shit.  
"That's Lil' Cal," Dirk says, as if he were introducing you to someone that wasn't a puppet. You blink.  
"Lil' Cal," you repeat. You stare at the Striders and the puppet.  
"Lil' Cal," Dave clarifies, and it's just there in the air. That's Lil' Cal, and you have to live with it.

Dave spoons a bit of cereal into his mouth, and you stare at Lil' Cal for a few more moments before Dirk stands. "Sorry," he says, then proceeds to the cabinets. He grabs a bowl, grabs a spoon, and hands it to you. You hold the two in your hands awkwardly, not sure what to do now since you had no clue where the cereal was. Dirk opens another cabinet that's out of your reach, and you kind of observe the various brands for a moment.

"I'll take Frosted Flakes," and so Dirk complies, grabbing the Frosted Flakes and setting them on the counter. You hesitate for a moment, then grab the box and re-open it, then pour some into your bowl. You hand the box back to Dirk, but don't move from your spot, and just wait for him to return the cereal to it's normal place. A moment passes, and he closes the cabinet and makes his way to the fridge.  
You wrinkle your nose - the Striders drink from the jug, and you just know it. Dirk grabs it from the fridge, and for a moment you almost want to tell him you prefer almond skim milk, but you don't. He pours it into your bowl as if you're incapable of doing so, then returns it to the fridge. You make your way over to the table, and sit right across from Lil' Cal, so now you know that you won't be able to fully enjoy your breakfast at ease.

"So, how've you been?" Dave asks, deciding to spark the sorts of a conversation. You're not sure how to respond, so you roll your eyes and grumble a bit. He knows you by now, you never give a direct answer to that question, and he knows that. "Okay," he says, as if just accepting your indefinite answer.  
"What's the city like?" You ask, after promptly chewing a huge spoonful of cereal coated in Strider-infested milk. You were probably most excited for the city - because you're more or less used to suburban areas, not urban. And it took a hell of a long time convincing Kankri to let you go out to explore the world; you had to lie and say that you're going there for further knowledge of different areas. And it even took a long time AFTER you had said that, too.

Dave looks like he's thinking, mustering up something to say about the city. "It's kinda dangerous," he says, and that's basically the worst thing someone could even say about something new. You suppose Dave's just like that, though. "But it's fun."  
Oh, great. It doesn't matter if there are skyrocketing crime rates, as long as it's fun! Oh, some guy getting mugged over there? Oh well that's okay because today the sun is shining and hopes are high!  
You roll your eyes to Dave's stupidity, but you suppose it's form of being ironic. You don't judge because you know you're a pain in the ass too, though. You continue to eat your cereal without much of a care to make an effort to pursue conversation, because there's nothing really incredible to talk about. Dave is just the same as you remember him, and you're certain you're certain that you're not any different, either.

-/-

You're in the car with Dave now, Dirk opting to stay at home. So now, it's nearly the perfect time to converse about the city, seeing as that's where you're headed at this point. Now, you know for a fact Dave is more talkative when he's with someone one-on-one, so you're hoping he'll tell you a lot more than he did at breakfast.

"How dangerous?" You ask, resuming your conversation from the morning time. He knows what you're talking about, you had to expect him to; otherwise that smartass 'one up' attitude that he carried around would have probably been diminished at that point.  
"Well there are choice people who you don't want to get involved with. Gangs, and there are a few individuals," he starts off, raking his own mind in order to bring the haze. You know this is just for show, because he finds the names almost right away, and continues to talk.  
"Gangs as in... There are individual groups of people that they like, worship or something. It's kind of just a blur until you're involved with it all," Dave explains, and this piques your interest a lot. Worship? What does that even mean? "And no, I don't want you to get involved with any of that gang shit," he says, and you audibly groan. Before you can complain, he continues on with his explanation. "There's this one chick - Terezi Pyrope. People call her the law, because she enforces the fuck out of the underground gangs and shit, but she's a part of it nonetheless. Her 'gang', to say, would be this group of mostly big buff dudes with the occasional chick who like to call themselves the Law too. But, she's like... The head of the gang."

You take just a moment to comprehend this. The Law? What an odd... Gang. "Are they like... Dangerous? Someone who calls themselves the Law doesn't seem too goddamn dangerous to me...," you explain. Isn't the idea of the law something you could trust?  
"Yeah, hah, you don't want to get involved with them, but they're not the absolute worst. They're more low-scale, if anything," Dave explains. You're not sure if you want to hear the high-scale people or not. "Now, for a middle I could go ahead and tell you about the individual people... There's an informant, but like, she's really dangerous. Like, threateningly dangerous - you REALLY don't want to get involved with this one chick, and she's practically famous for being called the Prophet. She claims to be told people's secrets from the voices in her head, but a lot of people just suspect that she's basically fucking everywhere at once. She's got eyes on everyone in the damn city, so she's probably the number one person you don't want to get involved with. Not even joking," you think something must have happened between Dave and the Prophet, because... Well, he's nearly pissing his pants just talking about her.

"Anyone else?" You ask, a little on edge. Those were only TWO of the people you have to be wary of? You're probably going to have a fucking heart attack in this city before anything actually dangerous could even happen to you. You can't help but wonder though; the people of the city seem to have formed their own way of life, and call it the 'underground'.  
"Yeah, a lot more," Dave says. You suppose he just doesn't want to scare you too much right away. "But I don't want to scare you too much. Besides, there's much more than just crimes in this city. It's pretty damn cool as well I must say."  
This doesn't ease your nerves in the slightest, so you hope Dave knows something about self-defense.

-/-

You reach the city, and Dave parks in something that looks more like an apartment complex parking garage. You furrow your brows, then look to him curiously. "Is this even legal?" You ask, not sure what to expect of Dave at this point; what kind of a teenager he was, anyway.  
"It's fine. I have a few friends who have a van the next level up, I told them I would meet them," oh great, because the thing you've always wanted was to meet Dave's possibly stoner friends. You want to ask to do something - anything - different, but you decide against it.  
You suppose back at your home you had your own group of friends who also seemed like stoners, but that was far from what you actually were. You're not even CLOSE to being anything into that kinda shit.

So Dave parks his car, and you both get out, and he locks it, and he just kind of strolls off towards the way up to the next level, and you just awkwardly follow behind him. You suppose you're ready to meet Dave's friends, and hopefully they won't all collectively just try to push you over the edge of the parking garage and just fucking end your life there. But, you doubt that'll happen. Before you know it, yourself and Dave are both heading towards the van that's parked exactly parallel to an elevator. He approaches and knocks on the back window four times, rhythmically, and the trunk door swings open.

You meet eyes with a pair of the brightest green eyes you've ever seen. Further inspecting, it's a girl with lengthy black hair and a pair of large, round glasses. She's sitting across from another girl with what appeared to be a roughly pink, moreso as a kind of faded reddish colour. She has short, white-blonde hair that reaches just about her jawline, and, she's got this headband in her hair that matches her eyes perfectly. The last person you come to see, is a boy with black hair, and the world's most fitting buck teeth. He also has glasses that cover his eyes, in a square frame.  
These were Dave's friends?

Dave let his friends take in your appearance, and you weren't sure what to do. Since there was a permanent frown on your face, you kinda just kept your neutral expression, and at the same time examined them just as closely. Okay. This was interesting enough, you supposed. So, at this point you kind of just cleared your throat, and nodded your head to them. Dave let the silence sink in just to tease you, before introducing you properly.

"Guys, this is Karkat. Karkat, these are my friends," he motioned to his friends as he listed off their names with ease. "Jade, John, and Rose."

John frowned a little, though this quickly bounced back into onto his features, a buck-toothed grin smiling proudly. "Hi there!" He greeted. For a moment, you felt this guy was just playing around for Dave's sake, but you weren't sure. You narrowed your eyes to him oh-so-subtly.  
"Hi," you say, and turn to the girls. Jade smiled, and waved enthusiastically, whereas Rose also sent a wave your way as well. They seemed alright.

"Nice to meet you, Karkat," Rose says, and you nod your head to acknowledge that it's nice to meet her too. You're more passive kind than anything. And momentarily, an awkward silence fills the air.  
Though, a few seconds later Dave more than happily puts an end to it. "Alright, so... You guys wanna show Karkat around the city? I mean, I'm coming too but I think it'd be less shitty with you guys too."  
Well, ouch. Okay. Whatever, you don't need Dave's opinion, he can shove it up his ass.

"Seems fun!" The one with the long hair - Jade - agrees. You're not sure if she's complimenting you or Dave, but whatever. It doesn't really matter. After exchanging looks, John and Rose both agree, and all Dave says is "great," and he does so in a rather stoic manner. John exits the back, and climbs into the drivers seat whilst Rose hurries up to sit in the passenger seat. So, you sit in the back with Jade and Dave, and honestly, as he leaves the parking garage, it kind of feels pretty awkward.

You feel kind of out of place, and you're sure they feel your tension, but also you feel a little bit reassured, to say.You carefully watch as skyrise buildings pass by, and for a moment a surge of excitement shoots through your body.

**Author's Note:**

> not sure what i was trying to achieve by writing this but okay  
> the prophet is heavily based off of izaya orihara  
> this entire thing is literally just inspired by durarara!! in general ok


End file.
